Biography

Jai Prakash obtained his PhD (cum laude) in 2006 at pharmacokinetics and drug targeting from the University of Groningen on the topic “Renal-specific delivery of anti-fibrotic agents using lysozyme to treat renal fibrosis”. Thereafter, he worked as a Vice President – Preclinical Research at BiOrion Technologies with a joint position at the University of Groningen. During this period, he developed several products, which are currently in the pipeline of BiOrion. Besides that, he co-supervised PhD students on the topic “hepatic stellate cell targeting of biological and kinase inhibitors to treat liver fibrosis”. In parallel, he set up a new line of research on tumor stroma targeting to develop novel diagnostics and therapeutics for cancer. To gain new knowledge and experience in tumor stroma field, he joined the group of Prof. Arne Östman at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm by receiving two prestigious grants Swedish Cancer Foundation grant and Marie Curie Career Integration Grant. Shortly, he became Assistant Professor in the Department of Oncology-Pathology of Karolinska Institutet. He also received a Young Researcher Swedish Research Council Project grant to develop new targeted nanotherapeutics against cancer.

In September 2012, he was appointed as Tenure-track Assistant Professor at Targeted Therapeutics section of Biomaterials, Science and Technology, located at the MIRA Institute of Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine in the University of Twente. He has obtained several grants funded by Swedish Research council, Dutch Kidney Foundation, Phospholipid Research Centre Heidelberg, MIRA Voucher, and STW Take-off grant.

Since 2013, he also holds an Associated Scientist position in the group of Prof. Östman at the Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.

In 2016, he has founded a UT spin-off ScarTec Therapeutics BV., which aims to develop novel therapeutic technologies for inhibiting scar formation and pancreatic cancer. ScarTec has received Take-off phase-2 funding from NWO.

Research Interests

The research goal of the Prakash lab is to design and develop new cell-specific targeting strategies to address fibrosis and fibrosis-driven cancer. Fibrosis or scarring is described as the excessive deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) in an organ, which may lead to dysfunction of the organ and eventually death. In recent years, the contribution of fibrosis in cancer has received enormous attention due to its contribution in inducing tumor progression and metastasis. In addition, fibrotic stromal tissue hampers drug delivery to the tumors, thereby reducing therapeutic efficacy of anticancer agents.

Myofibroblasts are key cell type in organ fibrosis and tumor stroma. By means of targeting to myofibroblasts, the Prakash lab is developing novel therapeutics and diagnostics (Theranostics) for organ fibrosis and cancer. Besides myofibroblasts, macrophages are another key target cells in the tumor microenvironment. The following are the major areas in which his team is actively working on.

Understanding the difference between myofibroblasts’ phenotype in organ fibrosis and cancer

Discovering new targets in myofibroblasts in organ fibrosis and tumor stroma

Research Topics

We have herein summarized the significance of CAFs in the primary tumor and at the metastatic site as well as described the therapeutic opportunities to inhibit CAF functions (Prakash J. Trends in Cancer 2016). We have identified several key targets and developed novel therapeutics against these targets which are currently under investigation.

Within the tumor microenvironment, microRNAs are dysregulated which instigate a crosstalk between tumor cells and stroma cells in favor of tumor progression. We have recently summarized miRNA targets in the tumor microenvironment (Kuninty et al, Front Oncol 2016). Furthermore, we have also identified miR-199a and 214 as key targets in CAFs of pancreatic tumor stroma and demonstrated their therapeutic significance in pancreatic tumor (Kuninty et al, Oncotarget, 2016)

We have developed a 3D stroma-rich tumor spheroid platform (in collaboration of Dr. S. le Gac) which produce natural tumor barriers such as collagen that is found in human tumor tissue. Furthermore, we demonstrated that stroma present in these 3D spheroids hampers the penetration of nanoparticles. (Priwitaningrum et al, J Controlled release, 2016)

We have shown that different types of macrophages (M1 and M2) internalize nanoparticles differently depending on the protein corona formed on the nanoparticle surface. (Binnemars-Postma et al, Nanomedicine 2016)